The consumption of cheese continues to grow due to the varieties and forms available to the consumer and due to the popularity of Italian and Mexican foods such as pizza and tacos. Such foods, whether prepared at home or eaten out, often utilize cheese in a sliced, shredded or diced form. As popular foods develop and change, cheese performance expectations have broadened. Traditional cheeses, such as mozzarella and cheddar, are being modified to meet expectations and remain competitive. Although technologies have been developed to improve performance and reduce cost, a need still exists to streamline processing, provide new functionality, and narrow the quality gap between traditional cheeses and alternatives, which may include pizza cheese and taco cheese.
Pizza cheese and taco cheese are non-standard cheeses, which may contain safe and suitable food ingredients not specified in the standard of identity for mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. They often contain higher moisture, some form of starch, low cost dairy solids, emulsifying salts, gums and flavorings.
The quality level of pizza cheese differs from traditional mozzarella in flavor, texture, and melt. In addition, the handling requirements for frozen pizza cheese are significantly different. One of the leading manufacturers of pizza cheese requires the product to be frozen to accommodate higher moisture contents and prevent rapid aging. Quality attributes and economic advantages have been known to disappear with improper thawing of frozen cheese.
Cheddar cheese still appears to be the leading choice for taco applications. Lower cost alternatives, such as processed cheese and imitation cheese, have negative connotations and lower perceived quality. The concept of taco cheese, a non-standard fresh cheese resembling cheddar, is generally analogous to the application of pizza cheese on pizzas. Quality and functionality can be refined for application on tacos.